I just posted the E5Ti's I bought last week in the for sale forum. They are absolutely gorgeous in Red Burl for the price and packing truly is first rate. Bass response is more akin to a good bookshelf but so what...you're going to use a sub anyway. Not sure I'd pay $500/pr for them but at $275 they were a treat. They look way above their price range and sound pretty good as well. I was going to use them in a new bedroom system but I have two other setups already and that's enough. I should have taken some pictures before I boxed them back up. Oh well.

What made you decide to sell them over one of the other setups?

The bass on my larger towers did improve once they loosened up some...but like you said we have subs so it doesn't matter.

That 50hz crossover point seems bit high for a 48" tower with three woofer drivers. I'd have thought that they would hit 40hz with ease.

They're 88db sensitive with the surface area of a 10" driver and inexpensive drivers.

You could make them "hit 40hz with ease" by either

1) using more expensive motor structures among other things
2) using larger costlier drivers (and the requisite larger costlier box)
3) throwing away sensitivity (and dynamics, which is where these speakers excel for their price point)
4) tuning the box lower, and losing the vent's control over driver motion (and get more distortion)

Quite honestly 50hz is low a crossover point. 80 to 100hz is a better idea to maximize performance not just out of these, but most speakers.

Received my EMPs today and got them set up. I have only one disappointment so far. Made in China? DubyaTF? I didn't research where they were manufactured, but since EMP is based in Utah and they are a direct distributor of their products I guess I just assumed they were made in Utah. That's what I get for assuming. Still, they are quite pretty, sound great out of the box, and feel solid as all get out. I compared them against my Athenas and took photos which I'll post later. One other comment about them...the E56 center...holy hell!! Friggin huge!!

They're 88db sensitive with the surface area of a 10" driver and inexpensive drivers.

You could make them "hit 40hz with ease" by either

1) using more expensive motor structures among other things
2) using larger costlier drivers (and the requisite larger costlier box)
3) throwing away sensitivity (and dynamics, which is where these speakers excel for their price point)
4) tuning the box lower, and losing the vent's control over driver motion (and get more distortion)

Quite honestly 50hz is low a crossover point. 80 to 100hz is a better idea to maximize performance not just out of these, but most speakers.

Agreed on the higher crossover point. With Audyssey you can always raise the crossover point, you just cannot lower it without impacting EQ.

Made in China? DubyaTF? I didn't research where they were manufactured, but since EMP is based in Utah and they are a direct distributor of their products I guess I just assumed they were made in Utah.

If they were made in USA, you would pay about $3000 for them. I'm not kidding either. The drivers would cost about ~2-4X as much each (and that's six drivers per speaker), the crossovers would cost more, and the cabinet would cost a good bit more.

Quite frankly a 3-way mid/entry level speaker made in USA is a pipe dream. You really need to jump straight to the high end if you want that, and even then most of the parts will be sourced from asia, and most likely drivers assembled in Europe.

Agreed on the higher crossover point. With Audyssey you can always raise the crossover point, you just cannot lower it without impacting EQ.

I would raise it to 80hz.

Not to be a luddite,but I listen to music in 2 ch with pure direct on my Pioneer Elite recv'r.I set the sub crossover by ear and I never have used any of the EQ features of the new HT systems.....Not for everyone,but it's my way......been doing it for almost 40 years

Gives you an idea of how large the EMP center is. EMP tower (left) Athena F2 (middle) and EMP center (right).

EMP surround on the wall.

Up close EMP center with grille off.

The room photo. That's a 46in Bravia and you can see how big that EMP center is. Note the Vizio soundbar just under the tv. Acoustech H100 just to the left of the tv also.

So far so good. Outstanding quality and very well packaged. Good out of the box sound. When they get loosened up I'll run MCACC on the Pio 1021 to tune them. I can already tell they are very laid back and not bright at all. Will post more impressions after a few days use and equalization.

The bass on my larger towers did improve once they loosened up some...but like you said we have subs so it doesn't matter.

My two other setups include Swan Diva's and Infinity Beta's, both of which I'm very happy with, although I may sell the Swans if I can find some more Beta's. I really like the way the Infinity's sound in Pure Direct which I'm listening to much more often these days. Seems like going backwards the way everyone else is falling all over themselves with these room correction features but Pure Analog is just sounding better and better to me all the time. But you need speakers that are a real good match for you and your room. The Swan's and the EMP's were just a tad brighter than the Infinity's, which also have a warmer mid-range, so I'm favoring them a bit more these days.

If they were made in USA, you would pay about $3000 for them. I'm not kidding either. The drivers would cost about ~2-4X as much each (and that's six drivers per speaker), the crossovers would cost more, and the cabinet would cost a good bit more.

Quite frankly a 3-way mid/entry level speaker made in USA is a pipe dream. You really need to jump straight to the high end if you want that, and even then most of the parts will be sourced from asia, and most likely drivers assembled in Europe.

Just look at the price difference between RBH and EMP. The e55ti is a lot like the RBH SX-6300/R but the e55ti lists to $795 and the sx-6300/R is $3280. The RBH is made in the USA and it does have higher quality crossovers and driver, but is 4 times the build price in parts?

Just look at the price difference between RBH and EMP. The e55ti is a lot like the RBH SX-6300/R but the e55ti lists to $795 and the sx-6300/R is $3280. The RBH is made in the USA and it does have higher quality crossovers and driver, but is 4 times the build price in parts?

The SX-6300/R is really a different tier of loudspeaker. a pair uses around $400 worth in tweeters, If I had to guess it uses a good > $200 worth in midranges (4 four-inch aluminum mids, with likely high end motors), and I wouldn't be surprised if it uses > $600 in woofers.

And since that is true aluminum, rather than the poly-matrix aluminum used in the EMPs, the crossover becomes more complex. I'm willing to bet that speaker uses 4th order slopes, as well as other advanced filtering.

And the box would probably be much more inert.

the e55ti aesthetically looks like the SX-6300 but it really isn't in the same class. Now the SX-6300 might be "assembled" in USA but I'd be willing to bet the drivers are still made in asia, as are the crossover parts and cabinets.

I would believe that what you said about SX-6300/R is all correct. I really did not want to say that the e55ti is in the same class as the 6300, but the the point of just building the high end is true. Why build a $1500 version of the e55ti when it can be made for half that in China. I am sure that all of the components the RBH reference speaker are far superior to the EMP.

I recieved a pair of EMP E5 Ti last night. Currently, I have them hooked up to a 2.0 system and only had time to listen to them for about 30 minutes last night...a few impressions (and for reference, I have been listening to Polk M40s and SLS speakers):
- for the smaller of the towers, those things are pretty damn big.
- Beautiful speaker and mine were B stock, but I could not find a flaw on them.
- Sound quality is very good. Verdict still out, as I didn't give them a very long/thorough listen. Not the most senstive speaker ever made, take a little power to get them to sing! Bass was not quite as impressive as I expected, but pretty good. Speaker has nice range and not harsh at the high ends. Don't know how much the speaker will change with "use"...
- Will hook them up as the mains on my HT set up this weekend and give them a try in that area.

I've continued to push my new set a little more. Caught up on a couple weeks worth of Survivor tonight and decided to use them while I watched. They sound veeeery nice. There is just no real high end harshness. Grated, some of that may have to do with the fact that I'm using the finger EQ in Pio app to tune out some of that. Nevertheless, they do sound really nice. I think this weekend I will turn them loose and see how they sound.

I know the "Breaking in" of speakers is somewhat of a myth, with many claiming the spec don't change to an "audibly detectable" level in the first several dozen hours of play...
However, for those who do believe a speaker will begin to sound better after X number of hours of play...how many is X?

I know the "Breaking in" of speakers is somewhat of a myth, with many claiming the spec don't change to an "audibly detectable" level in the first several dozen hours of play...
However, for those who do believe a speaker will begin to sound better after X number of hours of play...how many is X?

Zero hours....... you may notice a SLIGHT difference in the bass after about 10-20 hours but in all honesty.....I doubt that's even true. Throw me in the "Myth Camp"...... I think that what people notice as a 'difference' is their ears just being more in tune with the new speakers sound.....

Zero hours....... you may notice a SLIGHT difference in the bass after about 10-20 hours but in all honesty.....I doubt that's even true. Throw me in the "Myth Camp"...... I think that what people notice as a 'difference' is their ears just being more in tune with the new speakers sound.....

I used to think it was a myth until Bill Fitzmaurice said that speakers actually do need some break in. If anyone would know it would be Bill.

I'm super excited! I have a onkyo ST-H7409 HTIB shipping to me.. and I ordered a set of the E5Ti to replace the fronts. This will be my first home theatre sound system. I once converted my klipsch promedia computer speakers to be used with a receiver and it worked but that doesn't really count I suppose. These were some of the only floorstanding speakers short enough to fit under my projector screen.. which is 40" above the floor. I'm glad someone here mentioned you need to buy the speaker "outrigger feet" seperately if you're going to use them on carpet, otherwise I wouldn't have known.
edit: since I'm only going to use 5.1 speakers with my 7.2 receiver, does that mean I should bi-amp or bi-wire the E5Ti's? The reciver is an onkyo 609 100 watt per channel receiver.. and the speaker is "recommended power: 50-150 watts" so if I run two speaker wires to the speaker.. will that give it 200 watts of power?
edit 2: crap, they emailed me and said hawaii requires an extra $200 in freight charges so I had to cancel

I used to think it was a myth until Bill Fitzmaurice said that speakers actually do need some break in. If anyone would know it would be Bill.

TS Parameters change, namely increased compliance from spider wear. But in decently designed enclosure, in a room you will not hear a difference of 2-3hz more extension. That's maybe a 1db difference over 1/6th of an octave at bass frequencies where response is dominated by the room anyways. It might make sense for a designer to run in a driver before measuring it, because a lot of designers already make their boxes small

This is totally different from all the subjective claims people make about speakers "opening up" after breakin. That's just a load of BS.